


Some Things Just Go Together

by reylocmv



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Fluff and Humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-29
Updated: 2020-02-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:47:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22468129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reylocmv/pseuds/reylocmv
Summary: Inspired by the Adam Driver Ketchup Skit on SNLRey and Rose go to a Halloween Party where they run into Hux and Ben Solo. Fluffy Fun in awkward costumes ensues.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Rose Tico, Rey/Ben Solo
Comments: 8
Kudos: 45





	1. Chapter 1

“Rose, I can’t believe you made me wear this thing,” Rey told her friend with an awkward grunt and she shimmied her way out of the backseat of her best friend’s car. 

“It’s more fun to match!” Rose responded cheerfully. “Plus, you know I was hoping to talk Finn into coming with me.” Her upbeat tone wavered slightly at the reminder of her failed plans.

Rey felt guilty hearing the disappointment in her friend’s voice. Rose and Finn had had a moment a couple of months back and while it hadn’t gone anywhere after, Rey knew Rose still had hopes of taking their friendship to the next level. So far, she’d had no luck and Rey had been doubtful when Rose had brought up her plan to invite Finn to the Halloween party her sister Paige was having. It turned out she had been right to suspect Finn would find a way to bail on Rose. Rey knew he didn’t want to hurt Rose, but she also suspected that he wasn’t into her that way, regardless of what had happened between them.

And that meant that Rey was now stuck trying to awkwardly get herself out of the backseat of Rose’s old Altima while dressed like a bottle of Ketchup. 

The costume had to be the most uncomfortable things Rey had even been forced to wear in her life and she wondered what Rose had been thinking when she’d chosen it for Finn. She had zero arm movement and almost no peripheral vision and as her awkward shuffling attested to, she could barely walk and couldn’t even bend at the waist. 

With Rose’s help she was finally out of the car and standing next to her friend whose costume was infinitely cuter and actually looked kind of comfortable. Rose was dressed as a fast food order of French fries. The container was a cute little red mini skirt and top decorated with a little logo. A headband that mimicked a row of French fries on top of her head on smooth dark hair completed her look. 

“This is going to be so much fun!” Rose said excitedly. “Paige invited a bunch of people from her work. Maybe you’ll meet somebody.”

“Dressed like this?” Rey asked. 

“You never know Rey,” she replied optimistically. 

“I’m sorry it’s not comfortable. If I had known it would be the two of us you know I would have got something else, right?”

Rey smiled at her friend, “I know Rose and you know I don’t care. I’m not looking to meet anyone tonight anyway. Let’s just go in there and have fun, alright?”

Holding hands (Mostly so Rey didn’t trip on the stairs up to Paige’s apartment) they made their way to the party. 

Paige lived in an older home in one of those up and coming neighborhoods that was still a few years away from actually being trendy. While some of the houses on the block had been renovated, her house was an original bungalow set well above the sidewalk at the end of a long row of stairs.

Rey was actually feeling a little winded from trip to the door, luckily, she’d always had good balance. The costume made walking up the stairs almost impossible with her knees inside the bottom of the bottle.

“I need a drink, let’s hit the kitchen first,” Rey said as the walked in the front door.

She’d been to one of Paige’s parties before so she knew there would be a whole counter full of options available, and if she was going to make it through the night as a giant bottle of ketchup she needed something to fortify her.

She took a step towards the kitchen when Rose suddenly let out a little screech and dove behind Rey, using her as a shield.

“What are you doing?” she asked, trying to turn around to see Rose.

“Don’t move,” she heard Rose say from her hiding spot behind Rey. 

“Rose, what is going on?”

She felt Rose drag her through the door off the main entry into a half bath. Rose shut the door behind them and shuffled around Rey until they were face to face. Rose looked spooked.

“Oh God Rey, remember like a month ago when I went out with those girls from my stats class and got really drunk?” 

Rey did remember. Rose had been really hungover for their shift at the coffee shop the next day.

“Well, I didn’t tell you but I sort of made out with someone at the bar that night.” Rose told her, blushing.

“What!” Rey screeched, shocked by Rose’s confession. “But I thought you were still into Finn?”

Rose looked conflicted. “I am – I was. I don’t know. There was this guy and he was kinda cute and we were talking and one thing led to another and the next thing I knew were making out in the hallway by the bathrooms. I can’t even believe I did that. Nothing happened, really. It was just kissing -mostly, and I gave him my number but he never called me so I just, let it go.” She shrugged but Rey could hear the panic in her voice.

“Rey, he’s here. In the kitchen. What am I going to do?”

Not having any more experience in this situation than Rose, Rey didn’t have any better suggestions then the standard advice, “Just act casual. If he says something be friendly back I guess.” 

She continued, trying to calm her friend, “Relax Rose, let’s go find Paige and say hello. We can find out how she knows this guy. It’s not as bad as you think. We have to go back to the party, we can’t spend the whole party in the bathroom and if we bail you DO NOT want to have to explain to Paige why you left early.”

“You’re right” Rose said, “I can be casual. So, he didn’t call. I can do this.” She shuffled around Rey, who accidentally knocked over am small rack with towels and bathroom supplies as she tried to turn back towards the door and follow Rose out of the Bathroom.

“I really need a drink,” they said in unison before breaking out in giggles. 

…

They were standing near the hallway entrance where they had a view into the kitchen without giving a clear view of themselves.

“Which one is he?” Rey asked, trying to be discreet. She had to turn her whole body sideways to talk to Rose.

“The tall ginger in the hot dog costume.” Rose leaned into Rey, whispering. 

Rey tried to look casual as she leaned slightly to see into the kitchen. She really couldn’t see anything that wasn’t directly in front of her face in this stupid ketchup suit.

At least the costume was easy to spot. Rey felt a pang of sympathy for the guy. It was a really ugly costume. Not as bad as hers, she thought, but bad. However, it looked like it was made of some kind of fabric, she reflected feeling a little jealous. At least he could probably sit down at some point tonight.

Rey watched him discreetly for a moment. He looked grumpy and seemed completely uninterested in the conversations that were going on around him. She was about to comment to Rose on that when what should she see appear beside Hot Dog, but a fellow ketchup bottle. 

It seemed that Hot Dog’s friend was also dressed like a bottle of ketchup. Rey studied the friend. She was pretty sure it was actually the same costume as hers. The difference, she realized, was that he was actually big enough to wear it. She looked him up and down. Yep. She was reasonably sure his knees were below the end of the bottle and he was taking a beer from his friend and drinking from it, which meant that he his arms were long enough to reach around the oversized bottle. Rey suspected drinking was going to be a challenge for her tonight. She’s tried to scratch her nose earlier and had finally needed to ask Rose to do it for her.

Rey felt an irrational dislike begin to form for this guy. It was one thing to be forced to wear a terrible costume to a Halloween party, but it was quite another thing when someone else was also at the party in the same costume and somehow making it good. 

She caught herself. Maybe not good, that might be going a little far. She took a good look at him. She thought he might he kind of cute. From what she could see of him anyway. He was tall, and probably fairly broad shouldered if he could reach his arms through the costume. He face was handsome in an arresting sort of way. He didn’t look especially happy either and Rey wondered what he and Hot Dog were even doing there if they were so miserable.

She shook her head (well, tried too, it ended up being more of a bump her head on the sides of the bottle and sort of wobble side to side movement) and angled her body back to Rose. It didn’t matter if she thought Ketchup Guy was hot. He was friends with the guy who didn’t call Rose and on top of that deal breaker, she knew better then to attempt to flirt while wearing this monstrosity.

“Let’s find Paige.” She said to Rose, turning away from the kitchen. “It’s not that big of a house, she can’t be far.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben's POV  
> Things are heating up at the party.

Ben Solo was not having a good night. It had started badly and had been going steadily downhill from there. He should have bailed when Hux had finally shown up to his apartment a half an hour late to pick him up. He definitely should have bailed when Hux showed up dressed like a fucking hot dog, telling him his costume was in the van. That had been the first red flag (or maybe red flags one, two and three if he wanted to be precise and Ben was proud of his exception attention to detail.)

The fact that Hux had been in a pissy mood from the moment Ben had opened the door and hadn’t managed to lighten up two beers and at least three shots of cheap tequila later was beginning to grate on Ben’s already tired and frayed nerves. Plus, if Hux kept this pace up then either Ben needed to stop drinking or they’d be Ubering home and he’d be stuck driving Hux back over here in the morning to get the van.

“Seriously Hux, what the fuck? Why are still here?” he asked waspishly, sipping an already too warm beer and cursing the poor life choices he’d made today that had him currently stuck in a ridiculously tiny kitchen in a dodgy part of town, owned by someone he maybe technically barely knew, with a man he was sometimes, but mostly not, friends with and oh yes, to top off the night, wearing the most ridiculous and uncomfortable Ketchup bottle costume that had ever been invented. 

He thought Hux rolled his eyes, but as he had minimum maneuverability, he couldn’t turn his head fully enough to get a proper look at him without turning his whole body and Ben was not going to do that. He’d already knocked enough plastic cups off the counter tonight. He was planning on keeping his movements to a bare minimum for the rest of the night. But, really, why was Hux rolling his eyes at Ben? If anyone had a right to roll his eyes, Ben was quite sure it was him. 

We haven’t seen Paige Tico yet and we can’t go until we do. It’s her party. If we don’t at least greet the hostess it won’t count that we came. I want that promotion Ben and I won’t get it unless I show that I can, in fact, play well with others.” 

Ben felt his lips curve upwards as Hux continued his rant. For some reason it had been a shock to good old Armitage Hux, upon sneaking a peek at his HR file to discover that he was considered a poor team player and lacked leadership qualities. Ben had only been able to laugh when Hux had burst into his office scaring poor Kay, his secretary, half to death, ranting about what he’d discovered.

Ben himself had been made a department lead a year ago and he knew it rankled Hux that old man Snoke had chosen Ben over Hux for the position. Ben knew it was more about who he was then the work he did, but Hux seemed determined to believe that if he met Snoke’s impossible standards he too would get a Lead position.

And that was why Ben knew he was stuck here until Paige showed up. Hux’s department and Paige’s team of engineers had recently completed a big infrastructure project and She had invited all the members of the group to her annual Halloween bash and Hux was bound and determined to show that he could “make friends”. 

Ben let his eyes wander over the crowd. Just outside the kitchen something caught his eye.

“Hey,” he told Hux, “Someone else has the same shitty Ketchup costume as me.” 

“I told you,” Hux said (Ben was pretty sure he was rolling his eyes again), “I haven’t dressed up for Halloween since I was a kid. I forgot actual adults would be expected to wear costumes. This was all I could find that I thought would fit you.”

“Yeah, well I think Ketchup’s talking to Paige Tico so maybe we can go over and say our hellos and goodbyes and get out of here?”

Hux craned his neck to see where Ben was looking. “That’s not Paige you idiot. She’s too short and, oh--!”

Hux’s sudden silence was interesting enough for Ben to shuffle turn himself to get a look at his friend. Hux was staring at Ketchup and Not Paige with a very strange look on his face. 

“What?” Ben asked, curious.

Hux shook himself and glared at Ben, “What?”

“I asked you first.”

“Really?” Hux just stared back for a moment. “Let’s just find Paige. This house can’t be more then 1000 sq ft. She’s got to be somewhere.”

Ben was torn about going in search of Paige. He’s been counting on her showing up in the kitchen. On the one hand, he very much wanted to get out of here sooner rather than later, but Ben had also discovered very quickly after donning his Ketchup bottle costume that it was a tight squeeze against his shoulders and only slightly less so on down the rest of his body. This meant that he had almost no room to actually move his legs inside the bottle and could only walk in a stilted sort of shuffle, relying on his legs below the knee to propel him forward. 

The desire to leave as soon as possible won out and he carefully followed Hux towards the kitchen exit.

The kitchen was a popular destination for guests as it was home to all the drinks and most of the snacks so while annoying, the log jam they found themselves stuck in leaving the kitchen into the foyer wasn’t surprising. 

Ben was trying to shuffle his way around two ghostbusters and a judge when something crashed into him forcefully from the side. While he was a big man and could usually hold his own, in this stupid ketchup bottle he had no ability to balance himself. His brain almost couldn’t process the experience as falling. Before he could even formulate a clear thought, he found himself hitting the ground with an uncomfortable thud with a second body landing on top of him, then rolling off (the advantage of being a round ketchup bottle he reflected dazedly).

Ben stared up at the ceiling, stunned. That water stain doesn’t look good he thought to himself. He couldn’t sit up in this costume so he just sort of lay there for a moment trying to figure out what happened.

“Rey!” he heard a voice cry out and he sensed, more than saw a body drop beside his. 

My name isn’t Ray, it’s Ben.” He thought dazedly. How hard did he hit his head?

He could hear the voice still talking.

“Are you ok, can you get up?”

Another answered with the loveliest voice Ben had ever heard. “I’m good Rose. Help me up?”

He was interrupted from his wandering thoughts when Hux’s head popped into view, blocking out the water stain, “Are you going to lay there all night or get up?” he snipped.

Ben reached his hand up, “I’m going to need some help here,”

Hux took his outstretched hand and tugged. Ben tried to get his knees bent to help leverage himself off the ground. 

“You should be dressed as a refrigerator. How are you so heavy?”

“Just help me up,” Ben said with a grunt.

“Can you give me a hand getting this lunk up?” Ben heard Hux say to someone nearby.

“Um sure?” the voice he’d heard earlier calling him Ray said.

Ben felt Hux take one hand and a much smaller one grab his other. This time he was able to get his feel solidly on the ground and back to standing.

“Thanks,” Ben said, looking at Hux who was staring at the girl who had helped them with the strangest look in his eye. He was also the strangest shade of red Ben had even seen.

The girl looked like she was blushing too, but as she seemed determined to stare at the floor Ben couldn’t be sure. 

A shuffling beside the girl Hux was staring at drew his eyes to the other Ketchup bottle. 

She seemed to be trying to shuffle closer to him. “I’m so sorry I knocked you over,” she said apologetically. “I can’t see a thing.”

Ben felt himself staring but forced himself to stop. Her face was lovely from what he could see (which was admittedly not much, because – Ketchup bottle), and that voice, it made his insides feel all twisty. 

“No harm done.” Ben told her. “I know exactly how you feel. I regret ever having to know what it’s like to be a ketchup bottle.” 

Normally he knew he would be pissed and a part of him, the part that knew his usual reactions to situations like this, felt like he should be yelling, but another part of him was just content to gaze at the very pretty girl standing in front of him.

“What happened!” a new voice interrupted. 

Ben sensed the girl try to turn, her bottle shifting slightly to the left. 

“Paige!” she said happily. 

Ben turned to greet Paige, who had apparently finally decided to show up at her own party, feeling awkward. 

“Er – Hi Paige.” Ben started to say but was interrupted by the girl who was with Ketchup.

“Paige!” she said brightly. “We’ve been looking everywhere for you. Where have you been?”

“I had to go and pick up more ice. Nix forgot.” She said.

Ben looked over at Hux, wanting him to get his small talk with Paige finally over with so they could get out of here. But, Hux wasn’t looking at Paige, he seemed to be stuck between glancing between the girl, who on closer inspection appeared to be dressed as French fries, and the floor. Maybe he had hit his head when he fell but Ben was starting to have an idea. A very interesting idea. 

He turned to Fries and smiled, “We haven’t actually met. I’m Ben Solo. I work at FO with Paige and Hux.”

She turned with a smile, “Hi! I’m Rose, Paige’s sister.” She gestured to Ketchup, “This is my friend Rey. It’s nice to meet you.”

Ben nodded a smile towards her. Yes, his instincts had been right. She had avoided looking at Hux the whole time. Hadn’t bother with an introduction either. They absolutely knew each other and Ben had a pretty good idea just how they knew each other. He turned to Ketchup – Rey.

She looked up at him and smiled lightly. “It’s nice to meet you, Ben.”

He saw her eyes dart over to where her friend was still standing awkwardly between Paige and Hux and realized that she knew too. Her look of sympathy towards Rose told Ben that whatever the story between Rose and Hux was, Rey had the answers Ben wanted. Answers he knew he’d never get from Hux. Suddenly this party had become much more interesting. 

Ben turned back to Rey with an idea, “I heard there’s food cooking on the barbeque in the backyard. Did you want to go get something to eat?”

“Oh, I’m not sure...” she answered.

Ben was not good at flirting, but he couldn’t resist the chance to get some dirt on Hux, plus it was hot in here and some fresh air would be nice. “Hux has been wanting to catch up with Paige, and as costume buddies I feel like we should stick together.” He tried to smile in what he hoped was an encouraging way, “Come on, you’ve got to be melting as much as I am.”

At that she did laugh, “True.” 

She looked over at her friend. “Rose, Ben and I are going outside to get some food and cool off. This costume is really hot. Come find me later?”

Rose looked at Rey for a moment, eyes, wide. “Ok. Umm, I’ll find you later.” 

Ben spared a quick glance at Hux, who was glaring at him. Ben grinned. “Later.” He said with a raise of his eyebrows. 

Ben led the way as they shuffled their way to the side door that led outside. The cool air felt fantastic after being in the crowded house. Ben heard Rey take a deep breath behind him and was sure she felt the same way. 

They were both quiet for a moment enjoying the cool breeze.

He turned to look back at her and she smiled.

“Good idea coming out here. This costume is the worst. I’m so uncomfortable I don’t think I even realized how hot I was.” She told him.

But Ben just nodded, “Yes. All that, but now I want you to tell me what happened between your friend Rose and Hux.”


End file.
